2014: January 1, 2014: The world celebrates the new year; meanwhile in Russia, an impromptu protest begins against Vladimir Putin's government in Moscow. Beginning in the early hours of the morning, the “New Years Day Protest” is curtailed only a few hours after it begins, with the authorities dispersing the protesters just after sundown.
January 2, 2014: President Viktor Yanukovych brashly decides to send the military over to clear Kiev's Independence Square of Euromaidan protesters. The resulting brutal military crackdown kill some 76 people and 247 others, though the protesters stand their ground. It also angers millions of Ukrainians, who turn up to protest the crackdown.
January 19, 2014: In a surprise decision, President Yanukovych unilaterally decides to opt for full membership into the Eurasian Union and Russia-led Customs Union, angering western Ukrainians even more.
(I would personally think that it would be better for President Yanukovych to not join the Euroasian Union or go to joining the EU, this would give Putin an “excuse” to invade Crimea like OTL)
February 6, 2014: the Ukrainian crisis reaches a boiling point, when armed thugs (later revealed to be hired by the government) beat opposition politician Yulia Tymoshenko to death while she is in prison. The act would be condemned by the international community and especially the EU, which now call for Yanukovych to resign (which he adamantly refuses to).
March 7, 2014 - In a stunning decree, President Yanukovych bans the 3 largest opposition parties (Batkivshchyna, UDAR, and Svoboda) and bans their politicians from running for office for the rest of their lives. This is seriously condemned by most politicians, and begins to rupture the ruling Party of Regions, as some MPs begin to join the protesters.
March 14, 2014 - The climax of the Ukrainian crisis. Chief of the General Staff Volodymyr Zamana issues an ultimatum to President Yanukovych to either rescind the ban (which he denounced as unconstitutional) within 72 hours or be forced out of office. Yanukovych refuses to comply. Meanwhile, the colonel general orders the military to refuse to obey the President's orders.
March 17, 2014 - President Viktor Yanukovych is finally ousted in a military coup d'état after the ultimatum expires. Col. Gen. Zamana later appoints Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Rybak as Interim President until elections scheduled in 15 June.
March 25, 2014: Ukraine tells the Russian government to “Go To Hell” in response to the announcement that they owe the Russian government the money that Russia paid to lease the black sea navel base back.
March 30, 2014: Major protests erupt in Eastern Ukraine between pro Russian and Anti Russian factors. The protest turn violent and are eventually broken up with the use of Military force. Their are many injuries and some deaths.
March 31, 2014: At 1 am Russian tanks roll into Eastern and Southern Ukraine. Unlike in Crimea their is intense fighting by the Ukrainian Military.
March 31, 2014:. At 9 AM Vladimir Putin gives a speech on international television. He tells that world that the Ukrainian government was quickly loosing control of the situation between the pro and anti Russian factions, and he could no longer stand by while Russian nationals continued to be put in harms way.
March 31, 2014: At noon President Obama goes on national television to address the crisis. Condemning Putin he says that Putin's autocratic actions continue to escalate tension in the region and that all Russians will have to pay the price. He announces new sanctions against dozens of people in Russian government and several banks and major oil companies.
April 7, 2014: Despite fighting valiantly after only a week the Ukrainian forces are pushed back to Kiev. The world anxiously watches to see how far Putin will go.
April 10, 2014: After returning from a trip from Europe President Obama announces that the U.S. will send several squadrons of F16's, several tank battalions and several battalions of troops to the Poland and the Baltic States. Warns Putin that the U.S. will stand by it's Nato allies in the event of an attack.
April 12, 2014: In response to President Obama sending troops to the region Putin orders troops to the Borders of the Baltic States for “ Military Exercises”
April 12, 2014: The U.S. Military goes to DEFCON 3 upon hearing the news about troops massing along the border in the Baltic States. President Obama gives an emergency speech on the White House Lawn. He denounces Putin as the most dangerous world leader since Hitler and reassures that the U.S. will stand by their NATO allies if attacked. He ends the speech by saying “Not since the day's leading up to WW2 has the world been in such turmoil.” Citizens and governments alike nervously await to see what the Russian leader will do.
May 26, 2014: Moscow and Beijing hammer out a deal on natural gas supply in a visit by Vladimir Putin to the Chinese capital. Also playing on reducing public anger surrounding air pollution, President Xi Jinping inks the agreement under the lobbying of Gazprom - all part of state's current plans to substitute the country's coal-fire energy plants in a bid to reduce choking emissions. After wrangling over years of pricing disagreements, the contracts signed call for 38 billion cubic meters per year to be transferred by pipelines for $10.40 per million British thermal units, supplanting Russian desires to buttress its European markets. The first shipments in 2018 are scheduled for entry by 4 thoroughfares: In the Russian Far East's Blagoveshchensk, Dalnerechensk, and Vladivostok - and Western Siberia's Gorno-Altaisk into Xinjiang. Today's breakthrough ends over 15 years in negotiations.
June 8, 2014: Vladmir Putin is critically injured during an assassination attempt, taking three bullets to the torso. He is immediately hospitalized but remains unconscious. Police immediately detain the would be assassin who is described as a “radical lesbian anarchist” by Russia Today.
June 8, 2014: An Islamic terrorist cell from the Caucuses announce that they are the ones who attempted to assassinate Putin. Despite this, Russia Today still runs with the headline describing the assassin as a “radical lesbian anarchist” to boost reader-base for the extreme Russian Orthodox.
June 9, 2014: In retaliation of the attempted assassination of Vladimir Putin, a group of Russian army soldiers in St. Peterborough starts a killing spree against anybody they see as homosexual after posting a video on social media sites. The death toll from the massacre levels at 61, the deadliest single rampage killing, but was heightened by the fact there was a group of them.
June 10, 2014: The video announcing the massacre is taken from YouTube. Dmitry Medvedev condemns the massacre the day he becomes Interim President and announced a military tribunal. This gives the world a gimps into the massive change between Medvedev and Putin, putting Medvedev in a positive light.
June 10, 2014: On the same day, Russia Today that was quoted as saying “the would be assassin who is described as a “radical lesbian anarchist”” comes under fire from the Western World for inciting Homophobia that caused the massacre.
June 10, 2014: The world waits in anticipation still of the fate of Vladmir Putin. Meanwhile Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, announces he will become the Interim President until Putin recovers.
June 14, 2014: The Russian Orthodox Church goes against Medvedev's new approach to homosexuality, this puts a spotlight on the Russian Orthodox Church which is bombarded with comments from critics.
June 15, 2014 - Ukrainian Presidential Elections: Vitaliy Klitschko (UDAR-Batkivshchyna) wins by a landslide, winning 63% compared to his nearest rival Oleh Tyahnybok (Svoboda) who won 21% of the vote. The main pro-Russian parties (Party of Regions and the Communists) suffer massive defeats in the Verkhovna Rada, with the PoR largely dissolving by itself after the elections.
July 1, 2014 - In a widely-expected move by the West, President Vitaliy Klitschko suspends all talks of joining both the Customs Union and Eurasian Union, opting instead to sign and ratify the Association Agreement with the EU. In a speech directed to a joint session of the Verkhovna Rada shortly before ratification, Klitschko declared that “Ukraine's future is forever with Europe, not with Russia”
Most pro-Russian groups (especially the Communist Party) protests, but they are mostly ineffectual since the Ukrainian crisis, while Russian Interim President Dmitri Medvedev (becoming Interim President after Vladimir Putin's assassination attempt) expressed concern at the situation.
August 6, 2014 - Large groups of pro-Russian protesters, gather in front of Besserabsky Square, where a statue of Lenin used to stand. Due to the largely discredited nature of the pro-Russian groups after the fall of Yanukovych, the protests are largely ignored.
September 9, 2014: The European Union announces a protection deal for Ukraine, promising it protection from Russian capture when the push is finally made. Ukraine accepts the deal under Klitschko, which angers many pro-Russians still inside of un-occupied Ukraine, as well as Russian soldiers based in Ukraine.
2015
February 18, 2015: The Ukrainian governments begins an extensive rebuild of the Slava-class cruiser Ukrayina to bring it into active service.
April 7, 2015: Interim President of Russia Medvedev announces of the fall-back of troops from Western Ukraine but does not move on the subject of occupying Eastern Ukraine and moving armies off the border of the Baltic states. He says in an announcement “Putin may have wanted to reunite all Russian supporters, but starting World War III is not worth the chaos it will cause.”
April 8, 2015: The EU congratulates Medvedev for retreating from Western Ukraine, calling it the first step for diplomatic peace. In the same speech though, they also scold Medvedev for not retreating fully out of Ukraine and wanting to keep the land in name of Russia. Klitschko and government returns to parliament in Kiev on the same day after leaving out of safety.
May 12, 2015: Medvedev announces Referendums to all occupied Ukrainian states as to whether they would like to join Russia (like with OTL Crimea but on a larger scale). The EU and US goes against this calling it a “shot-gun referendum” in that Russia is pushing pressure onto occupied Ukrainian states.
May 12, 2015: Klitschko, who was outside of Ukraine with a select few of his cabinet at the time of Ukraine’s capture, resurfaces in Brussels, being kept by the European Union. He announces plans to work with the EU and the US to recapture Ukraine from the Russians.
May 17, 2015: The International Criminal Court announces an investigation into the genocide of homosexuals after the Putin assassination attempt is to be made. Medvedev will not be investigated as he was the one who halted the genocide.
May 20th, 2015:
With The Russian army encamped across the border in the Odessa region of southern Ukraine, the Russian Duma votes to accept the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria as a province of the Russian federation to the chagrin of the EU and the USA.
May 25th, 2015:
Condemning the Russian annexation of Transnistria along the lines of Crimea in 2014, Brussels announces targeted sanctions against Russian officials and a reduction in tariffs between the EU and rump Moldova as a step towards eventual EU membership.
May 28th, 2015:
Medvedev integrates Russian peacekeepers in Transnistria and the Transnistrian Army into the regular Russian Army based in Odessa in southern Ukraine.
May 31st, 2015:
Russia holds referendums in occupied eastern and southern Ukraine amid wideßpread accusations of fraud.
Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkov, Poltava, Mariopol, Dipropetrovsk, Zaporiziya, Kriviy Rog, Kherson, Nykolaevsk and Odessa vote to join Russia amounting to the annexation of half of Ukraine's territory.
June 1st, 2015:
Brussels and Washington announce fresh sanctions against Russia over the annexation of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ethnic Ukrainians hold protests in several annexed regions that are suppressed by pro-Russian militias.
Unrest also breaks out in Russia's Chechnya region.
June 3rd, 2015:
Despite escalating tensions, Russia formally annexes South Ossetia and Abkhazia settling the status of the two breakaway Georgian regions.
Russia formally joins north and South Ossetia into a single administrative region. Medevedev announces plans to build casinos ànd resorts in Abkhazia to boost the economy of the region along the lines of Crimea.
June 16th, 2015:
The Russian Air Force announces the active service of the Sukhoi P-51, Russia's first stealth fighter to bolster Russian air power in Europe and Northeast Asia amid rising global tensions.
Serial production of several hundred stealth fighters is set to begin later in 2015.
Russia plans to send the first shipment of a modified version of the stealth fighter to India in 2018 as part of a deal between Moscow and Delhi to jointly develop a fifth generation stealth fighter.
2016: April 16th, 2016:
With Putin's Eurasian Union dead in the water, Belarus agrees for formal reintegration into Russia with considerable autonomy in exchange for reduced gas prices and considerable Russian investment.
The Russian Duma accepts the decision integrating the Belorussian defense and energy infrastructure with that of Russia.
July 18th, 2016: 34 are killed when a man opens fire in an airplane. The plane makes an emergency landing in Moscow. The shooter is arrested and identified as American Kenneth Small. The gun he used was plastic and made with a 3D printer. He had with him what appeared to be a suicide note that quoted “Not Guilty” by Eminem. Russian authorities say they will put Small on trial.
November 13, 2016: Chechen terrorists unleash a very small sample of the Marburg virus in Astrakhan, Russia, killing over 100 people.
2017 October 1, 2017: The People's Republic of China conducts naval wargames in the South China Sea with the Russian Navy, with both countries contributing an aircraft carrier. The exercise is closely watched by Japan and the United States, both of which are wary of growing military friendliness between China and Russia.
October 5, 2017: In a surprise ceremony, the governments of the Russian Federation and People's Republic of China sign the Agreement of Mutual Assistance. It is a significant economic and military partnership, bringing the two countries closer economically but, more importantly to Tokyo and Washington, bringing China and Russia together as official military allies. Both countries, considering themselves victims of an aggressive American foreign policy, are feeling increasingly threatened and so have banded together to present a stronger defence against America as a deterrent against aggression.
November 20, 2017: A Japanese F-2 fighter jet is shot down near the Senkaku Islands, triggering an international incident. Both China and Japan deploy forces ready for conflict, as does the US, while Russia puts its forces onto standby.
2018:
January 22, 2018: Natural gas begins crossing Russo-Chinese borders with the wrapping-up of pipeline construction by Gazprom and fellow energy giants Rosneft and Novatek. The 4,000 plus kilometre pipeline network, named the 'Power of Siberia,' is set to step up pumped volumes from the initially agreed 38 to 60 billion cubic meters per year as part of fast-tracked efforts by Beijing to sate exponentially growing liquefied gas needs (buoyed in due part to the domestic demand for energy substitutes - triggered by the gradual government closure of coal facilities nationwide). However, shale gas production has increasingly helped to anchor down the Chinese gas deficit, as the country's unprecedented 1,115 trillion cubic feet of reserves have only just begun to be capitalised on in the basins of Ordos, Tarim, Sichuan, and elsewhere.
June 8th-July 8th, 2018:
Russia hosts a successful World Cup despite tensions with the west which showcases many state of the art stadiums in over a dozen Russian cities.
Caucasian War: August-September 2018
August 2nd, 2018:
Skirmishing breaks out between Armenian and Azeri forces along the Nagorno-Karabakh-Azeri border. Russian agents, spetsnaz special forces and advisors are present in Yerevan.
August 3rd, 2018:
Russian president Medvedev calls for a calm and deescalation echoed by western leaders in Washington, London and Brussels.
However, the Russian president calls for a referendum to settle the status of Nagorno-Karabalk, something rejected by Baku since it would result in the ethnically cleansed region formally joining Armenia.
August 6-8, 2018:
Armenians hold massive rallies in Washington DC, New York, London and Brussels, likening the current conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh to the Armenian genocide and calling for international recognition of a referendum that would make the region part of Armenia.
Beijing expresses concern that conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan could threaten the planned Pan-Asian high speed rail system running through the South Caucasus including hostile neighbors Turkey and Armenia.
August 15th, 2018:
Medvedev and the Iranian president meet in Moscow to discuss the Nagorno-Karabalk conflict. Iran supports Moscows call for a referendum on Nagorno-Karabalk joining Armenia.
Secretly the two leaders discuss plans for military invention to carve up the South Caucasus should the conflict turn hot.
Medvedev promises Chinese envoys present at the meeting that he will protect Chinese investments in Azerbaijan in the event of a conflict.
August 18th, 2018:
A planned referendum goes ahead with Nagorno-Karabalk officially voting to join Armenia although Armenia had de facto control of the disputed region for over 25 years.
Moscow and Tehran recognize this move.
August 20-22:
Western leaders criticize this political fiat accompli. Armenians in the west hold another round of protests.
Armenia begins stealing oil and gas from the Nabucco pipeline passing through Armenia in claiming reparations for Armenian civilians killed in the multidecade long conflict with Azerbaijan.
August 23, 2018:
Azerbaijan cuts the flow of oil and gas through the recently completed Nabucco pipeline utilizing energy, its main source of political leverage.
Encouraged by Moscow, Armenians launch renewed attacks on Azeri forces near the disputed border, accusing the Azeris of firing on Armenian soldiers first.
August 24th, 2018:
Artillery duels break out between Armenian and Azeri forces. Moscow and Yerevan accuse the Azeris of shelling civilians, an accusation Baku denies.
The west repeats an appeal for talks and the resumption of the flow of oil.
August 25th, 2018:
Spearheaded by the new P-51 stealth fighter, the Russian Air Force launches a series of precision strikes against Azeri airfields, artillery batteries, communication points and bunkers near the disputed border.
Baku declares war on Moscow and Yerevan in response to Russian aggression.
The Armenian army launches a full offenßive against the Azeri army near the border in coordination with these attacks with Russian spetsnaz present.
Russia flies 5,000 reinforcements into Armenia by helicopter violating the airspace of so far neutral Georgia.
August 26th, 2018:
Western leaders condemn the use of force and accuse Russia and Armenia of provoking the conflict despite the support of the Armenian lobby for Russia's actions. Washington and Brussels call for a ceasefire.
They also expedite calls for EU memberßhip for rump Ukraine and Moldova.
August 27th, 2018:
The Russian Army moves into Georgia to “reinforce” its “humanitarian mission” in Armenia. Despite voracious protests in the UN, the Georgian Army does not resist fearing annihilation by the far superior Russian Army. Russian troops isolate Georgian army units as the did with Ukrainian Units in Crimea in 2014 and occupy Tblisi.
August 28th, 2018:
In support of Russian and Armenisn forces, the Iranian Army moves into the Nechivan exclave of southern Azerbaijan “to secure Armenias southern flank.”
August 29th, 2018:
With the Azeri army crumbling under intense pressure from Russian air attacks and Russo-Armenian ground forces, Iran invades the main part of Azerbaijan promising to end the corrupt “petro-regime” in Baku.
September 1st, 2018:
Despite fierce Azeri resistance, the Iranian Army secures Baku.
September 2nd, 2018:
What's left of the Azeri army surrenders realizing that it is hopelessly outmatched.
September 3rd, 2018:
Washington and Brussels, now backed by Turkey, condemn Russo-Iranian agression and announce a temporary boycott of Caucasian oil.
They also announce increased support for anti-Assad forces in Syria where the US in currently bogged down in the Latakia region.
Turkey reinforces its border with Georgia and Armenia while also massing forces north of Aleppo signaling possible intervention to end Syria's seven year long civil war.
September 5th, 2018:
Russia and Iran announce the continued occupation of Georgia and Azerbaijan respectively to secure the flow of energy and protect other major investments projects such as a portion of Beijing's landmark Pan-Asia high speed rail system.
Beijing has been noticeably quiet, appealing for calm and abstaining from several UN Security Council resolutions vetoed by Russia.
Some call for Russia to be kicked off the UN Security Council although there is no mechanism to do this.
2019
October 3, 2019 - The European Commision finally approves Ukraine's application, making the former Soviet republic a EU candidate. President Vitaliy Klitschko has stated that the move is “a step forward in European integration for the great people of the Ukraine”.
2021-2024:
15 October, 2021 - Hospital staff confirm that President Vladimir Putin is going to make a full recovery, several years after an assassination attempt had placed him in a coma. In response, Interim President Dmitri Medvedev has stated that he hopes “President Putin will return to the Presidency very soon.”
March 23rd, 2022: Former Russian president Vladimar Putin receives a briefing from top Russian generals and President Medvedev over world events during the former KGB officers nearly eight year coma. Putin is pleased that Russia had recovered Crimea, Novorossiya and Belarus but furious that Medvedev had agreed to withdraw from Kiev in response to western pressure. He begins immediately calling for plans to take Kiev and the Baltic States. His generals assure him after nearly eight hours such a move would be too risky in the present political environment. However, they inform him that the time was right to regain control of Kazakhstan and the western Kazakh oil and gas fields which would become a huge source of revenue for the Russian Federation.
June 26th, 2022: Meeting in the Chinese gas boom town of Kashgar, envoys from Beijing, Moscow and Tehran meet to discuss plans for partitioning the nominally allied states of Central Asia. Russia makes it clear that they intend to annex Kazakhstan, home to a very large ethnic Russian and Russian speaking population. China is initially furious having established de facto hegemony over the SREZ and recently bècome the world's largest economy. Noticing Russian intransigence, the Chinese eventually acquiesce on the condition that they get to annex Outer Mongolia, portions of eastern Kazakhstan including Almaty and Kyrgizstan as “lebensraum” for their huge population. Chinese mining interests and corporations had already made many of the above regions de facto Chinese colonies. China also demands that Russia continue the flow of Kazakh oil and gas eastwards at current prices in increased volumes. Putin is furious that China demands regions with over 1 million ethnic Russians but sees no choice but to agree to the terms of the most powerful country in Asia to gain their support for Russian gains in the west. Iran demands control over the Turkmen oil and gas fields which Putin accepts more easily. Eventually, the three powers agree to divide the entire massive region with most Tajik and Uzbek areas going to Iran. Given continuing tensions in Chechnya, Putin is somewhat relieved to give predominantly Muslim former Soviet republics to ally Iran not wanting to exxacerbate the threat of terrorism too much.
December 23rd, 2022: Large scale rioting and violence breaks out in the Kyrgyz city of Osh between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks. The army moves in the quell violence only to exxacerbate the situation after several police and army units defect to various sides.
January-March 2023: The violence soon spreads to other parts of Kyrgyzstan as well as neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikstan. By the time the dust settles, nearly a quarter of a million people have become refugees and thousands are dead. Unbeknownst to the world, Russian, Chinese and Iranian agents are behind the violence near the planned future Sino-Iranian border.
March 3rd, 2023: After “riots break out in Urumqi,” China sends the PLA to quell the violence increasing its military presence near parts of former Soviet Central Asia, their real target.
Central Asian War: March-June 2023
March 21st, 2023: Despite normally peaceful relations between Russians and Kazakhs, mass rallies break out in northern and western Kazakh towns and cities calling for the unification of Kazakhstan with Russia. The protesters are armed and trained by the FSB and assisted by spetsnaz agents who had slipped across the border.
March 24th, 2023: Astana is shocked by the violence and calls on nominal ally Putin to use his influence to help end the stand off in Kazakh cities.
March 26th, 2023: Putin accuses Kazakh president Nursultan of dictatorial practices and calls for more autonomy for Russian speaking regions in a country where Russian was already an official language.
March 29th, 2023: Several Kazakh police and army units defect to the protesters in the largely Russo-phone city of Petropavlovsk north of Astana. The FSB “persuades” Kazakh security forces to switch sides in order to keep their jobs.
April 1st, 2023: US Secretary of State Jon Huntsman compares Russian actions in Kazakhstan to Hitler's takeover of the Sudetenland and promises to increase shipments of American oil and LNG to Europe “to decrease their dependence on Russian and Kazakh gas to zero.”
April 3rd, 2023: Pavlodar falls completely to Russian forces after more army and police forces defect while fighting breaks out in Aktobe, Karagandy and even Astana itself between Kazakh security forces and pro-Russians. Kazakhstan west of the Ural River falls completely to the Russians.
April 4th, 2023: During an emergency meeting in Brussels, Huntsman fails to get European commitment to biting sectoral sanctions against Russia due to lingering mistrust between Europe and America over the later's handling of Syria as well increased trade with Russia despite targeted sanctions in place since 2014.
April 6th, 2023: With violence in Kazakhstan continuing to escalate, the USA seizes the assets if all Russian banks in the United States closing Russia out of the American financial system. Putin had anticipated this move and advised Russian banks to move their capital into yuan, ruble and euro denominated assets.
April 8th, 2023: At 6:00 AM Beijing time, Chinese mining corporations in Mongolia order private NGOs in fact answerable to Beijing to seize mines and accompanying infrastructure they operate in Outer Mongolia.
April 9th, 2023: A 15,000 strong PLA force marching from Inner Mongolia reaches and occupies Ulan Bator. The Mongol Army does not even attempt to fight knowing just how hopeless the situation is for them.
April 10th, 2023: Chinese president declares the annexation of Mongolia claiming to be “reclaiming” territory stolen from the Qing Dynasty. Putin immediately recognizes the Chinese annexation of Mongolia while western leaders remain silent.
April 13th, 2023: Leaders from America, The EU and Japan condemn China's move calling it a “landgrab.” However, no mention is made of sanctions considering China's size and economic importance drawing accusations hypocrisy from many critics.
April 16th, 2023: In the largest airborn operation in history, over 20,000 Russian paratroopers transported mainly by helicopter seize the west Kazakh oil and gas fields to prevent them from being “damaged in the fighting.” Russian forces isolate Kazakh Army units in West Kazakhstan some of which defect in order to “keep their jobs.”
The same day, the PLA crosses the eastern border of Kazakhstan moving towards Almaty and Lake Balkhash.
Iran moves into Turkmenistan capturing the capital Ashgabat right near the Iranian border. Amphibious landings in the Caspian Sea and airdrops secure the Turkmen oil fields in a manner similar to those employed by the Russians. Legions of Iraqi, Iranian and Kurdish militia, many veterans of the conflict in Anbar Province, follow the Iranian Army, now under UIR command, into Central Asia.
April 17th, 2023: The US withdraws it ambassadors from Moscow and Tehran in response to the respective seizures of the Kazakh and Turkmen oil and gas fields. Washington remains noticably silent in China causing many to note Washington's helplessness as three Eurasian powers gobble Central Asia.
April 19th, 2023: Karagandy falls after a Kazakh Army unit defects and other forces are redirectly to defend Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, from the Chinese.
The same day, Russia seizes Artrau in an amphibious assault and the PLA reaches the outskirts of Almaty beginning a brief but fierce fight for the city where many ethnic Russians join the Kazakh defenders felling betrayed by Moscow.
Russia's Central Asia rapid reaction force moves into Kazakhstan to assist in the battle for Astana.
April 21st, 2023: Russian airmobile infantry seize the Baikonur cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan, a major objective away from the main fighting.
April 23rd, 2023: Almaty falls after fierce fighting claiming the lives of several thousand Kazakh and Chinese soldiers. Precision strikes by Chinese J-20s jets and drones help break the back of the Kazakh Army in that sector.
Russia repeats these tactics in the battle for Astana where it meets its first serious resistance by the Kazakh Army.
April 25th, 2023: Despite orders to continue fighting from Kazakh president for life Nursultan, the Kazakh Army agrees to a “ceasefire” on the Astana front effectively surrendering on the condition that Kazakh soldiers who resisted receive decent treatment from the Russians and Chinese noting how the Kazakhs fought bravely fought against impossible odds. Russia and China agree. China moves into the rest of Almaty and East Kazakhstan provinces while Russia occupies the rest of the country.
More surrendering Kazakh Army units join the Russian Army, predominantly but not exclusively ethnic Russians. Many Kazakhs are bitter over the a Chinese capture and anticipated annexation of the east preferring Russia.
April 27th, 2023: Chinese and Russian soldiers meet and shake hands on the western shore of Lake Balkhash, part of the new de facto border between Russia and China in Central Asia.
The bulk of the PLA in Central Asia, now numbering over 120,000 after receiving reinforcements continues into Kyrgyzstan to “quell the ethnic violence plaguing the failed state.”
April 28th, 2023: With much of the Kyrgiz Army still dealing with violence in Osh and other cities near the Uzbek border, the PLA captures Bishkek unopposed.
April 29th, 2023: Realizing the hopelessness of their situation, Kyrgyzstan surrenders to the PLA on the same conditions as Kazakhstan.
May 2023: The Iranian Army backed by UIR militia moves into Uzbekistan and Tajikstan from Turmenistan and northern Afghanistsn respectively. The Iranians repeat the tactics of the Russians and Chinese with some Tajik and Uzbek units joining them while others are isolated and destroyed by militia who carry out “mopping up operations” with extreme violence.
By the end of the month, all of Uzbekistan and Tajikstan are under Iranian control except for a portion of eastern Tajikstan in the Pamirs seized by Chinese special forces. Iran “reclaims the great Persian cities of Bukhara, Khiva, Samarqand, Dushanbe and Tashkent” promising to bring “stability and development” to the mostly impoverished regions.
June 4th, 2023: Russia, Iran and China announce the annexation of all the conquered Central Asian territories. Russia and Iran hold rigged plebiscites in the regions they control while China simply claims to be reclaiming territories held by the Qing Dynasty, even if very briefly. Beijing adds the “Ferghana and Balkhash” districts as well as a sliver of eastern Tajikstan to Xingjing and combines Outer Mongolia with the Inner Mongolia Semi Autonomous region to form the Mongolian Semi-Autonomous Region.